Convicted Florida murderers still on lam as courts, corrections deflect blame

Too easily, it appears.

Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins have been free for some time, though this fact didn't become public knowledge until this week. Now, Florida authorities are not only looking for the two men, but they also are insisting they aren't to blame -- even if others dropped the ball or were fooled in a big, big way.

"We've had a system failure that resulted in two individuals being erroneously released," Orange County, Florida, Sheriff Jerry Demings said. "...This is very frustrating for all of us who work in the system."

The two fugitives, both 34, didn't need a Hollywood-style jailbreak or even a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card to spring themselves out of the Franklin Correctional Institution. Instead they used forged documents indicating their life sentences had been modified and they could leave.

The legal-looking documents contained bogus reproductions of several key players' signatures, including those of the Orlando-area state attorney or the assistant state attorney and Judge Belvin Perry. They bore the seal of the Orange County clerk of court's office.

The documents were processed by the state Department of Corrections and the men were released. Processing the paper work is more akin to data entry than high-level analysis or approval, noted veteran Florida criminal defense attorney Mark O'Mara.

"However it was done, it was well-planned and they know the system well enough to place it," said O'Mara, a CNN legal analyst known for representing George Zimmerman.